The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1887-10-01
BULl-FROGS AND SkAiLS.
Two Profitable Additions to the Products
of American Farms.

TWO HrOntaDle AuditlOnS TO tne Erouucts
of American Farms.
There are two new additions to the
list of profitable products of the farm
which promise to find employment for
many farmers who have the requisite
facilities. These are due to foreign no.
tons and tastes imported chiefly from
France and Germany along with the
numerous adopted citizens who hail
from those European shores. One is
the grenouiile, so called by the French,
who esteem it as choice article for
the exercise of culinary skill. tits now
served up at the first hotels and restau-
rants in the large cities, New York
especially, and appears in the markets
as a regular article of sale. The ami
NAL is easily bred and reared, and
feeds itself and thrives most abundant
ly in marshes. The other is called
escargot, and is used for making stews
and soups. but is eaten also boiled and
roasted. This animal is also easily
reared, and requires no feeding, but
does better when pasture is provided
for it. Known in common parlance,
the first as the frog and the other as
the snail, these readily acclimated ami
mails have never until now been consid-
cred as of any value, but no doubt
hereafter will furnish special business
here, as they have done for many years
in Europe, to thousands of farmers.
The French frog farm is much like one
of our cranberry meadows-a swamp
laid out in broad bitches with grassy
banks between them. We remember
years ago passing one of these farms in
the vicinity of large French city in
the early evening, and being drawn to
notice it by the deafening music from
the thousands of fat fellows sitting in
the damp grass and now and then
splashing into the bitches and continu-
ing to sing their lays as they protruded
their shouts just above the surface of
the water. These frogs were special
breed, Rena escutenta by name, bat diff
fering very little from our handsome,
slender specimen found In marshes,
and having bright green and brown
| spotted skin. Our common bullfrog is
said to be quite as delicate in flavor,
and more acceptable in point of meat,
than the esculent species of Europe,
| and as the natural stock of them is fast
disappearing before the nets of the
hunters thousands are now imported
from Canada for the supply of the New
York market. Consequently the time
has come for the skilled culture of
them in connection with other aquatic
products, rs brook trout, carp, bass,
and other fish, or water cress, which
can be grown conjunctively, and are
very profitable.
The esculent snail is of various
kinds; one inhabits damp meadows and
is fed upon lettuce. Indeed, there are
several varieties Of these, judging from
the character of their shells, which in
habit fresh water, or rather the banks
of fresh water streams, and the low
greasy meadows adjoining. At least
one kind is denizen of the salt water,
and is found in the mud of tidal,
estuaries, and, as the .'periwinkle, "
is largely consumed by Europeans and
even by the English people. This latter
species is boiled in salt water, and as
the small, spiral-shaped animal is
drawn from its shell usually by means
of strong pin, the common Tame Of
it is the "pinpatch. An esc.rgerie is
quite well conducted establishment
in France, and is always surrounded
by close, safe fence to keep the stock
from wandering abroad and getting
lost. 1t is commonly sown with clover,
lettuce, rape, ant. other tender herb
age. upon which the snails feed, and il
laid out with narrow paths for ease IN
gathering the daily supply which \
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